AN: Thanks again to my beta Grey Raven 09 for his assistance!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Worm. If I did, I would be FAR more productive.
Please enjoy and let me know what you think in a review if you feel like it!
ElderUnit
"Allow me to summarize, as I don't believe I heard you correctly the first two times," Director Emily Piggot said, her voice as carefully neutral as Armsmaster had ever heard it before. "Taylor Hebert fell from the roof of Winslow High School while simultaneously fighting against Sophia Hess and sending the Siberian running scared because she's a projection and her Master was in danger of being eaten alive by the swarm of bugs under control of Hebert."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"And as Hebert fell, she took Hess with her and had her swarm eat Hess."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"And she suffered extreme head trauma upon impact."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Piggot wiped a hand down her face. "Are you absolutely certain that she didn't just appear worse than she was?"
Armsmaster suppressed a shudder as his mind flashed back to seeing her lying in the parking lot as the swarm had parted. "My software was quite detailed with its injury prediction, Director, as I have stated. And, as mentioned, Miss Dallon was quite adamant about the damage Miss Hebert incurred."
Piggot shut her eyes and let out a long rattling breath. "So, Amy Dallon, then proceeded to resurrect Hebert."
"No." Armsmaster sighed. "As I have stated, Miss Hebert's own power healed her mind. Miss Dallon only healed her body."
"Of course. Because powers can do that now," Piggot muttered. A scowl flashed across her face before she leaned back in her chair and looked to the ceiling. She clasped her hands over her chest and slowly shook her head. "Is she still herself, Colin?"
He paused, frowning at the use of his actual name. The Director so rarely referred to him by anything except his hero designation. Finally he spoke, slowly, haltingly. "I, conversed with her for only a very short time before her team left for their home. She was…disoriented. But she appeared perfectly sane and lucid. If I hadn't seen her effectively brain dead a few moments before, I would've just said she was in a state of shock. She was aware of everything that had occurred over the last several minutes up to just prior to falling over the side of the roof."
"You let them go alone?"
"Of course not!" He scoffed. "Assault went with the Outcasts, as did Hookwolf for several blocks. He was remarkably…helpful. He offered to escort them part of the way until Miss Dallon was finished healing Assault. He made no derogatory comments and was almost…deferential."
Piggot's head snapped down and she stared at him. "What?"
"Yes, my feelings exactly. But according to my lie detector, he was truthful and expressed a genuine desire to simply escort them home, with no ulterior motive."
"What?"
"Yes."
Piggot ribbed the bridge of her nose and huffed. "I don't get paid enough for this. What about the momentary blackout? Was that her? Or her…power?"
Armsmaster shook his head. "It matches descriptions of capes near personnel who have experienced second trigger events - and primary trigger events for that matter though primary triggers tend to knock capes down for longer than a few moments. And judging from the expression on Miss Wilbourn's face when she returned with Miss Clements, it fits. My professional opinion is that it is more likely that Miss Wilbourn experienced a second trigger."
Piggot scowled. "Because that girl wasn't problematic enough. And Jack Slash and Cherish were definitely injured?"
"Dragon was able to find a security camera that caught him leaving. His right arm is entirely gone and he had several gunshot wounds. I doubt the wounds will kill him; we're never that lucky and he's never that sloppy, but without Bonesaw they will very likely inconvenience him. Cherish was confirmed to be nearly catatonic. Before the Outcasts left, Miss Wilbourn advised me that she managed to associate Jack with Heartbreaker in Cherish's mind. It's unlikely that the villain will be able to pull herself together enough to muster any sort of activity for some time."
Piggot nodded and opened the bottom drawer of her desk. Pulling out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, she poured a finger into each. Colin's eyes widened under his mask as he stared at the PRT Director, his mouth slightly open. "Ma'am?" He gasped.
"One drink won't kill me. I feel like I deserve one drink." Piggot stared into her glass as she picked it up and swirled the alcohol around. "Colin, a teenage girl was just resurrected by her own clingy superpower and her lesbian wannabe lover, then escorted home by a star-struck Nazi. One of my former Wards turned psychopath and got eaten to the bone. Siberian is a projection whose Master supposedly had all of his limbs eaten away, and Jack Slash also had an arm eaten; all by fucking bugs. On top of that, Cherish is a non-entity for who knows how long and Lung pulled a goddamn Godzilla on Crawler. Am I missing anything? Oh right. The resurrected girl has apparently adopted Burnscar too and is renaming her, which we have to spin to avoid a public outcry against this teenager who effectively rules the city and probably doesn't even realize it. And we aren't even sure if she is the same teenager she was three hours ago. I think…I think I'm done."
"Direct - "
"Emily."
"…"
"I don't like capes Colin. It's no secret. I've never made a secret of that. I've tried to divorce my personal feelings from my job, and until recently I feel I've done well enough with that effort. I don't know what exactly rubbed me quite so wrong with Hebert. Dallon is easy: she's Nilbog, just in a nicer package. But Hebert…she really would burn everything down to save her friends and family wouldn't she? I should admire that dedication…" Piggot sipped at her drink and grimaced. "God, I forgot how disgusting this shit was. I'm going to retire, Colin. I shouldn't be in this position anymore. I'll make certain that Jack and Cherish have left along with the Siberian and then I'm going to retire. I'll get my kidneys healed and I'll find a nice house in the mountains away from capes where I can be a miserable old bitch all on my lonesome."
He reached for the glass and after a moment of hesitation took a taste as well. "Do you want me to ask Amy to come and see you before you leave?"
"No. There's too much bad blood between us. I'll hire Scapegoat, and I'll use my own funds instead of PRT money. At least then it will feel like I can still be justified with being angry with capes in general."
"Ma - Emily, if you'll forgive me, that is, very poor reasoning. And if I can see that…"
"Yes, yes, I know." She looked up at him and for an instant he thought he saw a smile. He blinked and it was gone. It must have been his imagination. "Allow a miserable woman her vices. Go on, finish your drink and get out of my hair. I still have work to do before I hand off this office."
"Yes, Emily," he polished off the remaining alcohol in the glass and set the tumbler down. Bowing his head, he said, "It has been an honor working with you, Ma'am. Not always easy. But an honor."
"Likewise. You are one of the better capes I've met. Now get out of my office."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Fanfic Rec: 'Price of Blood' by ack1308. In this Sophia sends rapists after Taylor and they knock her out just after she issues 'attack' orders. This simple act causes quite a lot of deaths in a large radius and changes snowball from there. One of the big things in this fic is that Taylor is heavily dependent on Amy for her sanity and Amy is quite well written as a counterpoint from needing someone to rely on her for a change. The handling of the Undersiders near the end is pretty much the only downside to it though as a whole, the story is quite good and an interesting take on a What If scenario with a PRT that doesn't quite go full incompetent. It's also complete!
